Just Stop Oil protesters have been arrested after smashing the glass covering a Diego Velázquez painting at the National Gallery in London, as police detained dozens of others who blocked Whitehall.
Two activists targeted the glass on the Rokeby Venus painting with safety hammers before they were arrested on suspicion of criminal damage.
The artwork, which was painted by Velázquez in the 1600s, was slashed by the suffragette Mary Richardson in 1914. One of those involved on Monday said: “Women did not get the vote by voting; it is time for deeds not words.”
The Metropolitan police said at least 40 activists who were “slow marching” in Whitehall were also detained and that the road was clear after traffic was stopped for a brief period.
I hear this a lot, but what does it practically mean? As in, how will fence-sitters act differently in a way that will harm the world more? Genuine question.
If you’re on the fence about an issue and you see the most visible actors of one side acting like idiots, it’s more likely to push you to the other side which means yet more deniers supporting inaction from government and corporations. You don’t bring people to your side by pissing them off. You create more enemies for yourself.
These protests are already causing more people to call for a crackdown on the Just Stop Oil protestors rather than climate policy reform and enforcement. Even people who believe in anthropogenic climate change and want the government and corporations to do more to stop and reverse it hate these morons.